canonical cards sorting / suit wildcards

gistfile1.py

def sort_cards(cards, mask_suits=False):
    if isinstance(cards, str):
        cards = cards.split(' ')
    suits, ranks = 'cdhs', '23456789TJQKA'
    ranks_rev = dict((ranks[i], i) for i in range(13))
    cards = [(s, tuple(sorted(ranks_rev[c[0]] for c in cards
        if c[1] is s))) for s in suits]
    cards = [c for c in cards if c[1] != ()]
    cards.sort(key=lambda c: (-len(c[1]), c[1]))
    if mask_suits:
        return [ranks[r] + str(i + 1) for (i, c)
            in enumerate(cards) for r in c[1]]
    else:
        return [ranks[r] + c[0] for c in cards for r in c[1]]